The Indian women’s table tennis team blanked New Zealand, a side full of Chinese-origin players, to march into the semifinals of the Commonwealth Games at the Scotstoun Sports Campus in Glasgow on Saturday.

Shamini Kumaresan starred in India’s 3-0 win over New Zealand. They face Singapore, whom they lost to at Delhi Games to settle for silver, in the semifinals later on Saturday.

The ploy to play Shamini in the first singles against 52-year-old Chun Li worked. The Indian played a solid match to beat 2002 singles Commonwealth Games champion and five-time Olympian 5-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5.

“The match was much tougher than what the scoreline suggests. The New Zealand team is full of Chinese and we had a hard time beating them in Delhi four years ago,” coach Bhawani Mukherjee told PTI referring to India’s 3-2 win over New Zealand in the Delhi edition.

“We made the decision to field Shamini against Chun Li and it worked out well. The other girls also did their job,” said Mukherjee.

It will be an achievement for India to take a match off the mighty Singaporeans while Malaysia take on Australia in the other semifinal.

The losing semifinalists battle for the bronze on Sunday.

“It is unfortunate that we are up against Singapore but it is the way it is. I think Shamini is the only one who looks capable of creating an upset,” added Mukherjee.

The Indian men led by Sharath Kamal meet Scotland in the quarterfinals later on Saturday.

Four Indian judokas in fray for a bronze medals

Four Indian judokas were in contention for a bronze medal in the higher weight categories on the third and concluding day of the martial art event in Glasgow on Saturday.

In his quarterfinal bout, Pathania lost to Jason Koster having conceded three shido penalties and ‘Ippon’.

However quarter-final qualification ensured repechage bouts for Pathania, who knocked out Dominic Dugasse of Seychelles with an ‘Ippon’ within a minute. He will now fight against Tim Slyfield of New Zealand in the bronze medal bout.

In the (+100 kg) event, Parveen was ‘Ippon’ ed in the quarterfinal by Kiwi Sam Rosser but won his repechage bout against Gavin McNeill of New Zealand to set up a bronze medal fight with Jake Andrewartha of Australia.